page_title: William Walker (Wyandot leader)
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: William Walker (Wyandot leader) / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: A photograph of William Walker (1800-1874), a leader of the Wyandot Indians.
context_page_description: William Walker was a Wyandot Native American Indian leader and the first provisional governor of Nebraska Territory which also encompassed the present-day state of Kansas.
context_section_description: Walker was born March 5, 1800 in Wayne County, Michigan. He was the son of William Walker, Sr., a white man who was captured by Delaware Indians in 1777 in Russell County, Virginia.  Walker, Sr. was later sold to the Wyandot and grew up among them.  William, Sr. married Catherine Rankin, one-fourth Wyandot Indian.  The couple had ten children.
  Walker was educated in a Methodist school in Worthington, Ohio and spoke English and French, several Indian languages, and read Latin and Greek.  He was described as an eloquent speaker and forceful writer on political and literary subjects.  He married Hannah Barrett (d. Dec 7, 1863) on April 8, 1824.  She was a student in a Christian mission school at Upper Sandusky, Ohio and probably part Indian. and served as Private Secretary to Lewis Cass the Governor of Michigan Territory.  He became chief of the Wyandot in 1835. After the death of his first wife, Walker married Evelina J. Barrett, a widowed sister-in-law of his first wife, in 1865. She died on August 28, 1868.
caption: William Walker (1800–1874), a leader of the Wyandot people and a prominent citizen in early-day Kansas.
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